A few weeks ago, the Missionary of Charity Brothers celebrated the 50th Anniversary of their presence in Los Angeles. First, a bit of history. With the blessing of their foundress Mother Teresa, in 1966 Br. Andrew (originally a Jesuit priest) began his service as co-founder of the Congregation, centered in Calcutta. But it was only about a decade later and after the Fall of Vietnam, in 1975, that a few brothers left that country and came to Los Angeles. At the time, Br. Andrew wrote that in L.A. the Brothers could do “simple work with the unwanted, the lonely, the old, the disabled.” More complicated work, he added, “can often by-pass the personal need of the lonely or sad.” So what was to be the goal? To serve the poor, and Andrew wanted there to be “no pressure to [their] doing things or to having results to show.”

My wife Elizabeth and I first visited the Brothers in 1977. The community was then living in an upstairs apartment over a St. Vincent De Paul Society storefront. As far as we could tell, they had very little furniture other than their sleeping mats. There was a sense of austerity and stillness. We noted a sharp contrast between the way they lived and the activist and rather bohemian Catholic Worker folks whose hospitality house was not far away.

These many years later, the Brothers now live in a large and decidedly older home, with some sturdy furniture, around the corner from a Salvation Army storefront. They are close to what is known as the Pico-Union area. It’s just the sort of neighborhood in which masked ICE agents can set up shop and easily meet their deportation goal. People are wary of gathering in groups or even waiting at a bus stop.

Over the years we’ve become friends with a number of the current Brothers. One of them, Br. Chris, is a student from my first year of teaching at Loyola Marymount University (now, as they say, “in the Jesuit Tradition”). Chris Magallanes shares the name of one of the martyrs of the Mexican Cristeros. We’ve seen Chris several times over the years, once when he was on a “home visit” from his work with the Brothers in Romania — not an easy posting for a native Angeleno.

The Brother we’ve come to know best, who is here again in Los Angeles, is Carmelo Duca. He comes to us from Malta. Carmelo is an artist and the author of Redeemed by Beauty, a meticulously researched biography of Br. Andrew. Carmelo has served missions in Peru, Colombia, and India. Here in Los Angles he has worked in jail ministry and corresponds with prisoners throughout the country.

Br. Kevin, an American, has returned once more to Los Angeles. He has spent many years in Haiti and left only when armed gangs seized the mission house where he was living. He’s fluent in the distinctive Haitian French and still hopes to return to the island. For now, though, he doesn’t see any way for Haiti to pull back from the abyss, especially since the deadly influx of military assault weapons. We can’t help but notice how gaunt Kevin has become over the years.

And then there’s Br. Bob, the current superior, who’s long been a steady hand in Los Angeles. Something of an elder, Bob still supervises the making of a thousand sandwiches each week and their distribution to the denizens of Skid Row. He also “hangs out” at a nearby McDonald’s, which is a home away from “no home” for many of the poor. If Bob were to fill out a resume, I’d encourage him to add that he is an unlikely connoisseur of Dad jokes and a Scrabble whiz.

Doubtless many of the Brothers at the 50th Anniversary gathering, as well as their friends, were wondering about what the next 50 years might bring — or even the next ten years. Worldwide, the Brothers are in 21 countries; the majority of them come from India. But for quite a while now there haven’t been any new vocations from the United States. Why is this so? No doubt it’s because the Brothers are poor men living among the poor. They are little known and largely out of sight. And yet the Spirit blows where it will, and while the weary world turns and twists their witness continues. God’s name in Los Angeles, la ciudad de los angeles casi perdidos, has not been success. But the Missionary Brothers are men of faith. For this very reason, however, they do not live in quiet resignation. Instead, they embrace God’s presence and live out his enduring truths. They invite us, gentle reader, to do so as well, according to our own gifts.